Imagery of the Table in Pantomime

Derek Walcott’s play Pantomime is a demonstration of how Caribbean culture has evolved since colonial times, and acts as a post-colonial response to Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe. The antics of the characters Jackson Philip and Harry Trewe imitate colonial mimicry performed by natives and imported African slaves as a method of survival against/adaption to European culture. The table which Philip and Trewe use as a prop can also be seen as another layer to the theme of mimicry as it mimics other objects, and is used as a demonstrative tool by Jackson to mock Trewe’s ancestral heritage. Through thorough investigation it becomes apparent that the table mirrors much of what the play expresses, and forms its own connection to Robinson Crusoe.